Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Great Moments in Folk Rock (An Occasional Series)

From 1965, please enjoy the great Jackie deShannon -- backed by none other than the original Byrds(!) -- and her quite ineffably touching "Splendor in the Grass."

I can sort of get why this wasn't a hit at the time -- the band's playing is a little raggedy if truth be told -- but there's no question the record deserves to be much better known (Byrds fanatic that I am, I actually had never heard it myself until four years ago, when my late bandmate Andy "Folk Rock" Pasternack brought it to my attention).

In any case, I bring it up because of a curious accident of fate. DeShannon is married to singer/songwriter/film composer Randy Edelman, a guy I went to high school with, and our 50th class reunion is coming up in June. I have no idea if he'll be attending, let alone bringing the missus along, but I have resolved to find a 45 copy of the song on eBay, and plan to bring it to the festivities for purposes of autograph just in case.

12 comments:

And you're right about "ragged," though I'd single out the mumbled background vocals for special notice -- it sounds like they plunked the lyrics down in front of the guys 2 minutes before they hit the "Record" button and said, By the way, you're singing backup!

This was the B-side to Come and Get Me which is a nice Burt Bacharach tune. I bought it for the A-side which was Top 30 in L.A. spring 1966

The B-side, while having a nice folk-rock feel, doesn't really set itself apart from the plethora of that type of stuff being released at the time. Crosby is too loud and not very good.

Not sure when this recording session took place, but the above mentioned single came out April 1966. The Boys, an all girl group, recorded it as the A-side to their Kama Sutra single. I prefer that version, which preceded Jackie's, though it doesn't have the cool pedigree.

Did Jackie ever sleep with any of the Byrds? I know she got with the adorable Bryan MacLean during that time. Jimmy Page too. Really. They woulda made a great pair. Pity.

Vickie Rock - Anybody got an IV for this hangover? Looks like it's gonna be hair of the dog on the way to Solana Beach and the DBT. I know they're not the same since Jason left plus I've been getting totally beat up every night since Coachella started and ended, but ... They fuckin rock. Perfect for Dickel and Oxy.

Bring back the hour of splendor in the grass. Return the radiance once so bright. Spark creation in our fingertips. Fascination for the fuel.

Vickie Rock - Got my mics and rig set up for some multi-track laptop recording. It wasn't easy with the verrry slowly receding remnants of this mega-hangover. At least my old friend Sharon from Hawthorne is here to help out. Two sets tonight. An evening with DBT. Don't think I'll get this kind of carte blanche at the Regent tomorrow, but I'm gonna turn on the charm and see what happens.

"Dream Boy" rules! It stands on its own. And there is so much there to work with if you want to cover it.

It's from 1964 or 1965 but I never heard it until the 1994 comp CD came out (The Definitive JDS on EMI). Not even sure if it was get-able before that. It never even made the various "Jimmy Page: Session Man" bootlegs.